2 Muslim Doctors in Michigan Charged With Performing 'Barbaric, Illegal' Female Genital Mutilation on Young Girls
Twenty-one years since female genital mutilation (FGM) was made a felony in the U.S.—with thousands of women and girls made to suffer from this "barbaric and illegal ritual" during that time—finally the law is being applied.
For the first time since 1996 when a law was passed banning FGM in the U.S., indictments were made on Wednesday against two Muslim doctors and a third person for performing genital cuttings on two seven-year-old girls in a Detroit-area clinic, ABC News reported.
Authorities removed both girls from their homes in Minnesota, though one of them was returned later to her parents. The girls' parents were not charged.
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Dr. Jumana Nagarwala, Dr. Fakhruddin Attar and Attar's wife, Farida, were charged with FGM, conspiracy, lying to investigators, and other crimes. If convicted, all three face life in prison.
According to prosecutors, when authorities learned about the illegal activities, they tried to conceal evidence and silence others in their religious community to keep their crime a secret.
The two 7-year-old girls reportedly came to the defendants' clinic accompanied by their mothers who thought that the girls would be treated to a "special girls' weekend."
Prosecutors said the three accused are part of a much large group that has been performing FGM in Michigan since 2005, victimizing thousands of girls.
"This brutal practice is conducted on girls for one reason: to control them as women. FGM will not be tolerated in the United States," said Dan Lemisch, the acting U.S. attorney in Detroit.
FGM is recognized internationally as a human rights violation, torture and an extreme form of violence and discrimination against women and girls, according to Equality Now, an international human rights organization.
The World Health Organization says the ritual—which causes severe bleeding, infections, and complications in childbirth—is carried out for various reasons, including the belief that the procedure reduces a woman's libido and the risk of extramarital sexual affairs. It is also linked to African non-Christian religions and traditions.
UNICEF data shows that more than 200 million girls and women alive today have been cut in 30 countries in Africa, the Middle East and Asia.
Some proponents of FGM have tried to compare the practice to male circumcision.
However, according to Equality Now, the two practices are different. Male circumcision, or the removal of foreskin, does not affect the male sex organ itself, it says.
On the other hand, FGM damages the sex organs, inhibiting pleasure and causing severe pain and complications for women's sexual and reproductive health, it says.
